Increased memory and remote electronic data storage capacity offers access to large amounts of data in a very convenient form and physical size. Data may be available on diskette, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, and on line to a centrally located computer and memory storage medium. The challenge remains to extract information from the data simply and efficiently and to have confidence in the result that all relevant items have been uncovered. The widespread use of computers and electronic searching has attracted the attention of large manufacturers offering a vast array of products in an increasingly competitive environment. In an effort to offer product that closely matches customer needs, manufacturers proliferate product and product feature alternatives. This proliferation of product offerings provides the customer with more options from which to choose, however, it also increases the difficulty of finding the one product offering that best addresses a specific customer's needs. Manufacturer's response has been to offer a series of specialized glossy catalogs and trained sales personnel to aid customers in their product selection effort. To a manufacturer, these catalogs are costly to create, distribute, and update. To a consumer, these catalogs are cumbersome to use and store. In order to further breakdown obstacles between a customer's need to obtain a product and purchase of the right product, a manufacturer may offer what is typically a large catalog or series of catalogs of product offerings, electronically. An electronic catalog offers the convenience of compact physical size coupled with automated search and retrieval.
One known search method of automated search and retrieval employs Boolean logic and keyword searching. The Boolean logic keyword search is appropriate for locating concepts discussed in textbased references. The Boolean search is based on certain words or word relationships contained in a relevant collection of materials. Formulating an accurate and efficient Boolean search requires a certain level of knowledge about the structure of the data, the type of material being searched, the classification of the data if there is one, and any keywords or standard terminology likely to be used to express the concepts being searched. The Boolean logic keyword search is beneficial because it permits a user to formulate a search that accurately reflects certain priorities for the search. The Boolean logic keyword search, however, is inappropriate for locating a particular mix of feature alternatives within a database of product information. One searching for certain information may not be familiar with the terminology used in selecting a particular product. Multiple products may use different but synonymous terms. A concept expressed by a standard industry term in one industry may be different from a standard industry term in a different industry. A keyword search would require searching on all synonyms used in order to ensure a complete and accurate result.
Other interactive user interfaces use a hierarchial search. Hierarchial searches may also be referred to as tree searches and are a form of guided search. A variation of the hierarchical search is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,211 to Torres. A hierarchial search method offers a list of alternatives from which to select. The first list of alternatives has the highest priority and defines the profile of or relates to the remaining alternatives. Once selected, the system branches to another screen or lower level screen with another list of alternatives. The next list of alternatives having a lower priority. The system branches down through the various menus of alternatives having decreasing priority levels. There are known various methods of presenting graphical representations of a hierarchy to a user to help a user understand the current position within the hierarchy and the options for further movement within the hierarchy. A hierarchial search is appropriate for narrowing down to a subset of items from which to select based on alternatives having a fixed or necessarily depending priority level. Using this method, the available alternatives shown on any screen depend upon prior alternative selections. The hierarchial search is beneficial in that it is guided. A guided search meaning that use of the search does not require knowledge of the terminology used within the database due to the fact that terms for the available concepts are offered to a user. A user then makes a selection before proceeding to the next level. The hierarchial search, however, is cumbersome unless the selection of one alternative obviates the availability of other alternatives. Unless a user knows exactly what he or she wants and with what priority, each "branch" in the tree must be explored in order to gather an understanding of how certain selections affect remaining alternatives. In the case of a list of product offerings, given a set of alternative features for a single product, a number of people will have differing priorities for those alternatives and the priorities will have varying weights. Another disadvantage of the hierarchial search is that the greater the number of alternatives and permutations of alternative selections, the more levels there are from which to select additional alternatives. Multiple levels of screens increase the time and complexity of the search and are not as user-friendly or as intuitive to use as a simpler single screen user interface. The need for a nonhierarchial guided parametric search is based on the principle that given a family of items having certain features associated therewith each feature having respective alternatives, the number of products actually offered by a manufacturer is less than the number of possible permutations of alternatives. For the purposes of a simple illustration, a family of items may be cars in which features include color, number of doors, transmission style, braking style, etc. If a feature of a car is color, respective alternatives may be red, white, and blue. If a feature is transmission styles, respective alternatives may be automatic, three speed, four speed, and five speed. The vast number of permutations coupled with the fact that only a subset of the permutations are actually offered for sale as products is a source of frustration to a customer with a given set of needs. For instance red cars may come only with manual transmission and not automatic transmission. As features and alternatives proliferate, so does the level of frustration in isolating the one desired item. Accordingly, there is a need for a method to aid a user in identifying an item among a family of items based on selections of alternatives among features associated with the items.
Different customers have different preferences, and in many cases a customer is somewhat flexible concerning the product to buy as long as the customer is informed as to how the selection of one alternative affects the availability of another alternative. In addition, one customer may want a red car and accept manual transmission, while another customer must have automatic transmission and color is unimportant. Accordingly, there is a need for a search method that provides information interactively as to how certain alternative selections affect the number of remaining alternatives and/or matching items and allows a user to modify selection priorities during the course of the search.
There remains a need, therefore, for an automated search and retrieval system that can assist a user in finding a product having appropriate features to address identified needs and priorities of needs.
Associated with some known electronic search and retrieval systems is a certain amount of frustration when the defined search does not identify a single item. The user is obliged to further widen the field of search or modify a search criteria in order to identify any parts. The need to oblige the user to widen the field of search is due to the fact that hierarchial and keyword Boolean searches do not have any information in the search criteria to permit automatic adjustment of the field of search. There is a need therefore, for a electronic search method that is able to guarantee a user that at least one item will be identified.